'I had the shackles of being a Traitor': Paudie reveals stress he was under following exit

Paudie left chaos in his wake upon his departure from Slane Castle after two weeks of playing an impressive game

The last of the original Traitors, Paudie was finally caught by the Faithfuls in the most recent episode.

The Traitors Ireland star Paudie Moloney has spoken about the mic-drop moment he enjoyed upon his banishment from the castle on Tuesday night’s episode.

The last of the original Traitors, Paudie was finally caught by the Faithfuls in the most recent episode, but not before a mic-drop moment where he not only revealed that he had been an unsuspecting Traitor this whole time, but that the remaining contestants had actually met his real-life son, Andrew, on the show.

He left chaos in his wake upon his departure from Slane Castle after two weeks of playing an impressive game, using the role of ‘dad’ that was bestowed upon him by other contestants to his advantage.

But it was the now-viral ‘Daddy’ moment on the show, where Andrew spoke without thinking while under pressure during a mission, calling Paudie ‘Daddy’, that had audiences captivated.

Luckily, Andrew’s slip-up wasn’t overheard by any of the other contestants, and the father-son duo continued to play alongside each other - Paudie as a Traitor and Andrew as a Faithful - until Paudie seized the opportunity to recruit his son as a Traitor, which ultimately led to Andrew’s demise.

Speaking on The Traitors Ireland Uncloaked, hosted by Kevin McGahern, Paudie said that the family will get “massive mileage” out of Andrew’s slip-up.

“This is going to go on forever, I’d say, to be honest,” he said.

Speaking about his choice to recruit Andrew as a Traitor, he said it could have been an emotional one over a strategic one, but that he had a strategy.

“Nick put pressure on him [Andrew]. Nick said the pressure was going on as a curveball; he said he didn’t even think Andrew was a Traitor. So, he said, what we’ll do is get rid of Andrew, and it would take the pressure off of him [Nick].

Paudie revealed himself as a Traitor to his son and recruited him as a Traitor. 

“Nick had said that he didn’t think Andrew was a Traitor, and then, if I recruited Andrew, we might be able to murder Nick, and Andrew might be able to recover at the table because Nick would be gone, who was driving it. My thinking was wrong.

“And then of course, Siobhán came in and said, ‘There’ll be no murder tonight, so that was my plan gone out the gate’.” 

Touching on that mic-drop moment when he left the castle, he said: “I had to go out some way, so I might as well go out big, I thought. When I was walking up there, I didn’t know what I was going to say, to be honest. I didn’t plan it or anything, it’s just the way it came out.” 

Paudie said that he was looking forward to going home, but that he also would have liked to have stayed in the castle for another couple of days.

He said that his wife, who he described as a very smart woman, knew Paudie was taking part in the show and that when Andrew revealed that he was also “going away for a fortnight,” she would have suspected what was going on but didn’t tell anybody.

Paudie with host of the show Siobhan McSweeney.

“My brother rang my wife halfway through. My father’s anniversary mass was coming up, which I had forgotten was coming up at the time. So, she had to tell him a blatant lie on the phone that ‘he’s gone back working’. 15 years of retirement and then I’m ‘gone back working’,” he laughed.

Speaking about times when the heat was on him, he said: “I’ll tell you straight out. I had the shackles of being a Traitor. I had the shackles of the relationship with my son. There was some metal hanging off me — I had a lot of different things I was juggling.” 

Speaking about his relationship with his fellow original Traitors, Caitlin and Eamon, he said that he clashed with Eamon because “he was trying to dictate an awful lot”.

“I was trying to be the voice of reason,” he said.

“But Eamon just went on his own way and that was it.” 

Joining the others on the sofa was Christine Duff, aka ‘Christine from Cork’, who was murdered in a particularly grave way when the coffin she was placed in was closed over upon the announcement from host Siobhán McSweeney that she was the latest contestant to be murdered.

She was dug up for her appearance on The Traitors Ireland Uncloakedwhere she discussed her time on the show.

“I’m disappointed because I’d have liked to have gotten a little bit further, but I’m so happy with how I went. I’m really happy,” she said.

Christine, who played the game as a Faithful, was murdered on Tuesday night's episode.

“All I know is that I will never hug someone again,” she laughed, after it was Nick’s curse of a hug that led to her murder on Tuesday night.

Speaking about her reaction to the reveal of who the Traitors were, Christine said that she hadn’t suspected Paudie as a Traitor, but that there was a part of her at the very beginning of the show when Paudie, Eamon and Caitlin had their spat at the round table that made her question if it was a clue that they were working together as the team of Traitors.

“You do naturally build bonds with people”, she said, likening Paudie to her dad during their time in the castle together and saying they would often share crisps during lunch.” 

Describing their overall experiences in the castle over the last two weeks, Paudie said he was very stressed, while Christine felt as though she was on holiday.

“I gave 30 years in the prison service and I believe in my heart and soul now that I was never stressed. Because I was stressed those two weeks, by god was I stressed,” Paudie said.

Grinning, Christine said she treated the experience like being on holiday, saying: “I didn’t have to cook, I didn’t have to clean, I didn’t have to drive a car, I didn’t have to be a mom. I was just listening to 22 people just being deluded with each other.” 

The Traitors Ireland continues Sunday, September 21 on RTÉ One.